Product Description

Genre: Musicals
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-APR-2008
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #915 in DVD
• Brand: DEPP,JOHNNY
• Released on: 2008-04-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 116 minutes

Amazon.com
After years of rumors, it turns out that Tim Burton was the perfect visionary to film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Stephen Sondheim's Broadway masterpiece, and the result is a macabre and moving musical movie as enthralling as anything Burton has ever done. The show's mix of gothic horror, Grand Guignol, very dark humor, and witty and beautiful music never was the stuff of traditional musical comedy, but it's a powerful work, and perhaps the richest of the late 20th century. In the movie, Burton's frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp, plays Todd, a wronged man whose lust for revenge drives him to murder (an 19th-century legend who has been traced to a real-life barber). Helena Bonham Carter, another Burton mainstay, is Mrs. Lovett, the barber's partner-in-unspeakable-crime. It's no surprise that Depp is an excellent choice to convey Todd's brooding intensity and volcanic rage, but he can also sing a score that is so challenging it has often played in opera houses (though not with the same style as the Broadway original, Len Cariou, and he occasionally lapses into pop style). Bonham Carter is small of voice and lacks the humor of the original Broadway Lovett, Angela Lansbury, but she sings on pitch, in rhythm, and in character at the same time, which is no small feat for a Sondheim show. Aficionados will regret the loss of certain musical passages--"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is just an instrumental overture and the chorus is gone altogether, among others--but the reassuring presence of orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and conductor Paul Gemignani ensures that the music feels right and sounds great. And the film's depiction of a Victorian London hellhole--with cinematography by Dariusz Wolski and costumes by Colleen Atwood--also looks and feels right.

The excellent cast is filled out by Alan Rickman as the villainous Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall as his seedy Beadle, Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) as a rival barber, Jamie Campbell Bower as the young lover Anthony, Jayne Wisener as his object of affection, and Ed Sanders as the young Toby. For fans of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp who don't think they like musicals, Sweeney Todd should be a revelation (though not for the squeamish, as the gore is intense and completely appropriate). For fans of Broadway and Sondheim, it's hard to imagine getting a better adaptation than this. The fact that there's no newly composed Oscar-bait song sung by a Josh Groban-type over the end credits only makes it better. --David Horiuchi

On the DVD
On disc 1, along with the movie, is the 26-minute "Burton + Depp + Carter = Todd," consisting of interviews with Tim Burton and the major cast members (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Ed Sanders) talking about a variety of topics, including the challenge of singing the difficult score. Alan Rickman says, "One of the more challenging moments in one's life is when you've got the music in your hand and you're in a huge rehearsal room and Stephen Sondheim walks across the room and says, 'OK, let's hear it.' It doesn't get much tougher than that." Disc 2 is filled with a number of fairly substantial featurettes and other bonuses. Focusing on the movie are a 24-minute making-of featurette, "Designs for a Demon Barber" (costumes and sets, 9 minutes), and "A Bloody Business" (violent special effects, 9 minutes). "Musical mayhem: Sondheim's Sweeney Todd" (12 minutes) focuses on the score, and to those who complain about the changes the movie made, the composer says "Leave your memories at the door." There's also a light-hearted 20-minute press conference from November 2007 with Burton, Depp, Bonham Carter, Rickman, Timothy Spall, and producer Richard Zanuck, and "Moviefone Unscripted (11 min.) in which Burton and Depp answer caller questions. "Sweeney Todd Is Alive: The Real History of the Demon Barber" and "Sweeney's London" (20 and 16 minutes, respectively) trace the historical/legendary character Sweeney Todd and his time, and "Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition" analyzes the macabre style on which the play was based. Finally, there are "The Razor's Refrain" (stills set to audio clips, 8 minutes), a photo gallery of stills and drawings, and the theatrical trailer. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Sweeny Todd
A wonderful modern opera. Is there anything Johnny Depp can't do? He is unforgettable.

Not the greatest ever made, but watchable
First of all, I'd like to give the actors an A for Effort, as we see how, even though they are NOT singers, they trained in ways they could for the movie. I usually don't mind movie soundtracks, but unless I'm watching this particular movie, I'm not going to listen to the soundtrack.

I'm not familiar with the Broadway version, but I did feel that this film was lacking in the humor department. Sacha Baron Cohen was comic relief early on in the film, along with Mrs. Lovett's dream, and later, Mrs. Lovett's ending (the sequence of events leading up to it probably had something to do with it). I love black comedy, I kept feeling like there should be some macabre humor mixed in, but it just wasn't happening.

The film was too dark. I don't mean dark as in thematic elements - as I enjoy "darker" fiction written by classic authors (Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Federico Garcia Lorca, etc.) - but the lighting was too dark. This is probably so we can focus on JUST HOW MUCH BLOOD is spilled, which was too bright, and took me out of the story thinking of what fake blood they used... in other words, it was distracting. Hell, I can't even identify with those who complain of too much blood - it was so fake-looking, people SHOULD be complaining about ruining good fabrics with orange paint. I think the film would've been just fine had they left the colors as they were.

However. I enjoyed the film. Not because it's particularly memorable, or astounding, or even because I empathize so greatly with Barker/Todd (though the transition of happy, loving father to vengeful, hateful sadist is a tragic, and plausible, one). I like this movie because I take it with a grain of salt. Sweeney Todd at the beach, or his awkwardness in kissing Mrs. Lovett, were great moments. I could laugh at the hodge-podge character Pirelli was (mixture of Spanish, Italian and French it seemed like), and the irony of Todd/Lovett's demise. I could also shake my head at how gullible Mrs. Lovett's customers were, that NOBODY (except for Toby) ever caught on that it was dear neighbor Henry for dinner tonight.

The bottom-line: Rent this movie, be sure you're loaded up on soda and popcorn. Do NOT take this movie seriously, and remember kids - it's just paint.

Great movie!!
Well I looooove this film, and the dvd is pretty good. I haven't seen the special edition one, but this one's got a behind the scenes video, so it's not bad. Audio can be in english, french and spanish and with subtitles in any of these languages. Hope this works! =)